Alumni Friday – Martha Larson

Martha Larson came to RMSP for our Career Training program in 2006 and we noticed right away that she is one creative individual. At that time, the program involved instruction with film, and her sensibility as an artist lent itself very well to the characteristics and creative techniques of the film medium. How many photographers do you know that have adapted a twin reflex camera with a mini-periscope to create a highly unique and stylized finished product? This is Martha.

Fast forward to today. Martha’s adapted her style to the digital age and has been developing her own photography portraiture business in the Seattle area. Her focus is specializing in maternity and newborns, which dovetails nicely into also photographing older tikes. She has a wonderful way with people which truly shines through in her images. In the past year she’s been concentrating on her business model and has developed a new, more cohesive business strategy. Rather than have the families come to her, she now works with her clients in their own homes when the infants are less than a week old. Along with showing the clients the final work in her home office on a big screen television using ProSelect software, she’s redesigned her whole process, which has positively changed the way she sells her work.

When it comes to her valuable customers, this is what she has to say to them on her website:

“Do any of these statements sound like you?: ‘I’m worried about looking good in my maternity portraits because I’m not exactly feeling like a hot mama right now. I care about the people who will be handling my newborn baby and his or her safety and comfort is important to me. I want our family portraits to focus on our relationships and our personalities. I know my two year old won’t sit still for posed pictures though! I want to end up with a few amazing images that I absolutely love and cherish, not 100 that are so-so. This is a big investment so I want to make our time, energy, and money count. It has to be right!'”

She is obviously aware of her clients ideas, concerns and expectations when it comes to their precious families, and has adapted a business strategy that caters to them. This is appearing to be a strategy for success!

Shortly after leaving RMSP for home, she began a personal project of shooting at least one creative image per day, having only missed just a few days per month. Over the five years, she’s amassed more than 1700 images! She manages to keep her personal work a priority in spite of the daily in’s and out’s of growing a business. Throw in being an avid runner and training most weekends for her second marathon, Martha is close to the top of her game…in art, business and life!

To see more of Martha’s work, please visit her website and blog. Also, she is currently having a “Best of 2011″ contest on her Facebook page.